Breville has been slammed with consumer group Choice handing them a Shonky award for their questionable Food Cycler product which has been described as expensive and a waste of time.
Now their PR Company is tapping into tame, media in an effort to product the appliance Companies name.
Marketed as a way to slash household food waste by more than 80%, the Breville FoodCycler is supposed to dry, grinds, and cools your leftovers – turning them into odourless, nutrient-rich ‘eco chips’. (And no, you shouldn’t eat them.)
So, what’s wrong with that?
For a start, it’s expensive claims and likely to cost you a lot more than the purchase price.
The FoodCycler itself costs $499, then there are the energy costs (about $86 a year), plus the cost of replacing the filters and other parts ($223 a year). Over a five-year period, the FoodCycler would set you back about $2000, claims Choice.
Choice also has a problem with the amount of energy and that is used in the manufacture of the product.
During the eight-hour waste-to-chips cycle (which processes only a small amount of waste anyway); plus, the filters you need to replace and dispose of a lot of energy is wasted and the list goes on claims Choice.
Breville’ s PR Company did not send a press release to ChannelNews because they know we would have picked problems with the product.
Choice claims that eventually, the unit itself will end up on the scrap heap.
All of which raises the question of why Breville thought this product a clever idea. At $499 a unit, the answer is obvious.
Choice home economist Fiona Mair. has come up with a much cheaper way to break down your food waste:
“Just use a plastic container with a lid, commonly known as a ‘compost bin’. Starting at about $45, it’ll save you $2000 over five years compared with the FoodCycler.”
Don’t have a garden to put the compost in? How about a worm farm or a bokashi bucket? Both cost much less and will give you the same result in the end.
